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If the transport buttons were below the screen this thing would be almost perfect.

It's really a nice layout, it took me very little time to adapt to it, and I no longer have to think about which set of buttons my finger is resting on. Switching from the transport down to the d-pad is effortless.

It's really a nice layout, it took me very little time to adapt to it, and I no longer have to think about which set of buttons my finger is resting on. Switching from the transport down to the d-pad is effortless.

There is the glaring omission of skip buttons, which I personally could not tolerate, as I use those hundreds of times per day. They have some clever work-arounds which are gestures or long button presses. But I'll wait for the next version, hopefully with real buttons.

Besides that, it's in a totally different league. You get long sequences (10 steps), smart-phone integration, native PS3 and Wii control, wi-fi updates, less bulk, higher resolution, better RF range, quicker response, etc. Logitech did a very good job on this model.

The Ultimate has two major deficiencies - the backlighting is so poor, it is virtually useless in a totally dark room, and the button layout is less convenient as compared with the button layout on the Harmony One. However I will give it credit for improving the programming software and extended RF range as compared with the Harmony 900.

I've never had a problem with mine in the dark, other than finding it since it's black. The backlight is more than bright enough and works well in all conditions for me. Also the button layout is very intuitive. I learned it within a few days, it's much better than any other remote I've used, having the separation between the transport buttons and other controls is good as it makes it less likely that you'll be confused about what button you are pressing when not looking at the remote.

When you compare the screen and button brightness with that of the Harmony One or Harmony 900, it is easily half the brightness. Even tech support agreed with me. Their reasoning was that their design goal was to extend battery life. I do admit that my vision is not as good as it use to be...just one of the drawbacks of getting old. I wish that Logitech did not stop manufacturing the previous models, but rather improve them as they were the ideal remote for my setup. I am a big TiVo fan and the Harmony 900 has just about the same amount of hard buttons to match the TiVo's remote making it a perfect companion for my system.